At the recent congress of the Catalan Society of Pediatrics, held in Tortosa on May 6 and 7, 2016, an oral presentation I co-authored (along with former colleagues) won the award for the best presentation related to varicella.
The presentation was titled “Evaluation of the association between varicella incidence and vaccination recommendations and restrictions from 2007 to 2015.” In this study, we examined the decline in varicella diagnoses starting in 2007, when the Spanish Association of Pediatrics began recommending the vaccine. This downward trend continued until 2013, when the Ministry of Health restricted the vaccine to hospital use only; subsequently, varicella diagnoses rose, quadrupling by 2015 compared to 2012.
Fortunately, the Ministry rectified this anomaly this year, and the vaccine is once again available for general prescription. Furthermore, it is likely that within a few weeks, the vaccine will be funded by the public health system.